Foundry Daily News

China Hongfu Magnesium to raise ingot output to 30,000 mt in 2007

China's Shanxi Wenxi Hongfu Magnesium is to raise its magnesium ingotoutput to 30,000 mt in 2007, up from 16,000 mt produced a year ago, a companyofficial told Platts on Tuesday.

"We have our own mines and this helps secure enough raw material forproduction. Our raw material output has been on the rise and we will producemore ingots this year," the official said. "We have plans to further increaseour ingot capacity to around 100,000 mt/year in about two years."

He added that the company supplies about 50% of its total outputoverseas. "We are currently exporting about 1,300 mt/month of magnesium ingotsand 800-900 mt/month of magnesium alloy," he said.

The company currently has a magnesium alloy capacity of 20,000 mt/year."We will produce about 10,000 mt of magnesium alloys this year," he added.

"Our company has established a good sales network with both overseas andlocal consumers and we are now selling all our material on a spot basis," hesaid, adding that the company is now offering spot magnesium ingots at around$2,550/mt FOB China, while domestic prices were now quoted at slightly aboveYuan 19,000 ($2,494)/mt ex-plant.